Archive of Our Own ^beta

The sky was a pleasant cyan, with a faded pink gently mixed in near the horizon. As he looked up, Makishima was greeted by a cluster of stars stretching as far as he could see. He had to admit, Toudou had been right. When his phone rang in the middle of his homework, he hadn’t really expected the boy to invite him out for a walk.

“hey maki-chan!! have you looked outside omg?? It’s so pretty”

“I’m studying right now.”

“that sounds so lame. we should meet up!!”

It was 8:30 pm, and Toudou sure had a history of getting on his nerves, but Makishima closed his textbook and grabbed his jacket a little too quickly for someone who was just doing this out of necessity. It had looked quite nice outside his window, and he had noticed the way Toudou looked at him for a little too long every now and again, the way he leaned in a little too close. Sometimes, he’d start to play with Makishima’s hair as he talked, brushing it out with his fingers and braiding the strands. Maybe this was a normal thing friends did, but there was a gentleness to Toudou’s actions Makishima doubts would have been there if what he sensed was strictly platonic.

So, here he was on his way to the playground, anxious yet feeling that slight hopefulness, that tiny what if, what if it happens? He’d been going with the flow for a while now, the prospect of saying or doing anything still too big, too intimidating. Toudou was the kind of person to say it first, right? He’d just say it if he wanted to. With how easily talking came to him, always commenting on this and that, he should be a natural. In the meantime, Makishima just enjoyed being near him. Crowding next to him on a busy train, sleeping over and talking about silly things in the truly ridiculous hours of the morning, that one time Manami dared them to kiss and they almost did it before Onoda choked on a piece of candy and had to be rescued.

The playground was almost in sight, in the middle of a small clearing surrounded by woods. It was obviously meant for kids, but Makishima had pointed it out to Toudou once and the rest was history. It was quiet and empty at this time, and far enough from any houses so as to have some privacy. It was a bit old, not up to safety regulations, and kinda freaky if you were there alone, especially with all the gnarled trees surrounding it. It wasn’t that bad if you were there with someone else, though. Makishima had to admit it was a fun way to spend time, even if he felt immature saying it. By the time the structure came into view, Toudou was already there, sitting on a swing, coffee cup in hand.

“Maki-chan!!! You made it!”
“I wouldn’t leave you alone on this playground, I know it creeps you out.”
“My knight in shining armor”, Toudou said in an exaggerated romance novel heroine voice, raising the back of his head to his forehead as if he was about to faint. Honestly, of all comments to make Makishima blush.

“So, your royal highness, would you rather walk around or stay here?”
“I like the swings, honestly. I’ve been running around all day and I’m super tired. Come over here.”
Makishima walked in front of oudou, eyeing the swing next to the purple haired boy.

“Nice shirt.”
it was indeed a nice shirt. Makishima had chosen it himself at the store a week or so ago. It was neon pink, with a picture of the sun in sunglasses on the front. Why the sun needed sunglasses, Makishima didn’t know.
He decided to let toudous comment go unanswered. Instead, he plopped down on the swing next to him and began swinging.

“You look cute, you know. With my stylish expertise, you could totally own it.”
Makishima snorted at the expression.
“What are you gonna do, stick a headband on me?
“What else?”
Toudou hopped off his swing and turned to face Makishima. He held a hand up to his chin quizzically, like an artist examining his piece. With a fluid movement, he took off the headband, swept aside Makishima’s bangs and affixed it to the other boy.
“Honestly, how do you train without one? Beautiful as it is, that hair would drive me crazy if I didn’t tie it up on the track”, Toudou said.
“Well, if it’s interrogation time, doesn’t it hurt to wear a headband under your helmet?”
Makishima grinned. He already knew Toudou’s reason, having overhead it from someone earlier. Of course, he had been sworn to secrecy. This secret was privy to a select few. Makishima felt a little sneaky, knowing this detail about his friend.
“Not really. Besides, it’s for the sake of fashion! This is my brand, my look. I can’t believe you’re even questioning this.”
He did it to maintain his look, huh. Makishima supposed that wasn’t necessarily untrue. But he was sure Hell itself would freeze over before Toudou admitted his hair looked awful after wearing a helmet without that headband.

“Say, Maki, have you ever tried wearing a ponytail? I think it would highlight your features nicely.”
Makishima had not! Upon relaying this to Toudou, the other boy grinned and took a hair tie out of his pocket. Whoops. Makishima didn’t expect this outing to result in a surprise makeover.

Stepping behind him, Toudou began running his fingers through Makishima’s hair.
“It reminds me of a witch, but cute”.
“Gee, thanks”.
“No, it’s a compliment!”
He runs his hands through it a few more times, before pulling most of it up, except for a few strands which he let hang loose in order to subtly frame Makishima’s face.
“Ouch!! Don’t pull.”
“Tsk tsk! One must suffer to be beautiful!”
Makishima thought about pointing out how Toudou had just literally tsk’ed, a sound not naturally made by most humans, but decided against it. Toudou was really getting into this, and he knew how happy makeovers made the other boy. They were a special interest of his, and when his own look was perfected but his hands still ached to do some top tier beautification, he’d hound Makishima relentlessly. Toudou hadn’t done his hair before, but he was used to seeing the boy excited over fashion.

“There you go!”, Toudou exclaimed. “But wait!”
There’s more.
Toudou fished around in his bag for a bit before pulling out a small, purple tube.
Is that-
“Lip gloss! It’s shiny. It’ll go well with your look.”
Honestly, Makishima thought the lip gloss was cute. He’d never admit it! The boy was way too shy to admit he liked the things Toudou put on him, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t silently appreciate them to himself.

Swiping the gloss onto Makishima’s lips, adjusting his hair and stepping back, Toudou examined him, once again evaluating his work. In the most brazen show of approval, Toudou kissed his fingertips and exclaimed, “voila!”
Makishima just shook his head.

A small, lime green compact mirror was held in front of him.
“You’re beautiful!”
Hm. Makishima quite liked the lip gloss.
“The makeup is good, but I still don’t see why you’re so adamant about using me of all people for this kind of stuff.”
Toudou looked positively appalled, looking at Makishima with uncertainty.
“Because you have a nice face to work with, duh? Why else would I keep doing this?”
A nice face to work with. Huh. Absentmindedly bringing his hand to his chin, Makishima pondered the choice of words.
“Well, it’s not like I’m pretty.”
Toudou’s mouth formed a perfect “o”. The look flickering across his face wasn’t one Makishima had seen before, and to be honest, he was a little worried.
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m just like. You don’t know?”
“Don’t know what?”
“That you’re, you know, beautiful?”
“Quit fucking with me”, Makishima said.
“But I’m not! Honestly!”
“You damn fool. You’re making me blush.” Makishima said, only half jokingly. He cursed himself for actually blushing for real. Smooth moves.

Toudou’s eyes positively lit up at the wonderful news.
“Oh Maki, you’re just so pretty I could kiss you right now!”
Holy shit. Makishima wasn’t expecting that. How far could he make this go?
“Yeah, right, like you’d ruin all the hard work you put into this ‘look’” he said, sweeping a hand along his chin to emphasize the expertly applied makeup.

“Maki chan, maki chan, it’s way simple. If I were to kiss you-”, Toudou took Makishima’s hand from his chin into his own, “-I would really just be giving my work the highest honor.”

With that, he leaned down and pressed his lips to Makishima’s. Makishima froze in surprise, then relaxed. He was right. It did happen. Living the cute gay biker boy dream.
Hesitantly, Toudou brought his hands up to Makishima’s hair, only to remember he had put it in a ponytail earlier (effectively sabotaging his future self). Wrapping his arms around Maki’s waist instead, Toudou decided he was going to be smooth. He was going to be a cool dude. In his mind, the most romantically suave thing to do would be to sit on top of Makishima, on the swing. However, this was so silly and unnecessary, that he ended up falling off completely and landing on the woodchips.
Makishima, to his utter betrayal, laughed at his pain.
“Get up and kiss me again, but forget about your makeup this time. Think about me.”
‘Don’t worry Maki, the focus is definitely on you. I’m destroying my work to kiss you, aren’t I?”
Makishima laughed again. Sticky grape flavored lip gloss was worth it for this.